Weekly Neil: Are There Any More Real Cowboys?

Will the fire hit the iron one more time?

Old Ways, released in 1985, is effectively Neil’s Nashville Skyline. But it occupies a much more curious space in his discography than that beloved departure of an LP does in Bob Dylan’s. Old Ways, by virtue of being an ‘80s Neil record, is automatically far more of a curio. Even if it’s so consciously throwback in aesthetic that it becomes almost anachronistic. This naturally makes it very cool in a conceptual way, despite its very straight-ahead country and folk sound. A novelty that sounds normcore. Because it is.

But Old Ways has its bona fides. For one, Neil actually recorded it in Nashville, at the House of David studio (where he also laid down Comes A Time). For another, Willie Nelson sings on it, including a verse disparaging cocaine-sniffing, rhinestone-studded phonies on “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” This is a song that features an identical chord change to a notable one in Harvest kickoff track “Out On The Weekend” — the one where Neil sings about packing it in, buying a pickup, taking it down to L.A. and starting a brand new day. Both feature harmonica as a sort of secondary character (in the case of “Cowboy,” it’s a third, after Willie). These are road-trip tracks.

“Cowboy” is a duet, really. While Willie takes aim at those who’ve co-opted the cowboy look, Neil’s verse simply asks: “Will one more dusty pickup come rollin’ down the road with a load of feed before the sun gets high?” He wants the working cowboy to live forever. When Neil and Willie team up for the final plea, it’s to rail against the creep of suburbia encroaching on working-farm families and how they take care of themselves and by extension the rest of us. It’s noble. The final image is of “an old gray barn” still standing. A month after this record dropped, Neil and Willie (and others) staged the first Farm Aid concert. Thirty-six years after this releasing this song, Neil and Crazy Horse put out Barn, an album captured in an actual barn in Colorado. He’s consistent.

Throughout Old Ways, he’s bringing a vision of the Neil brand of the ‘70s — rustic, mellow, wind-blown — to the ‘80s. Like using electronic machinery to reap the harvest sown with antique hand tools. This has mixed results. To rattle off cold hard facts, Old Ways didn’t quite sell. But you can hear real love both in the songs themselves (Neil called his “My Boy” performance “probably the most soulful recording I have ever made”) and in the caliber of the songwriting. “Cowboy” in particular benefits from the gorgeous piano playing of one Hargus “Pig” Robbins, a blind session talent who played with everyone from Patsy Cline to Loretta Lynn to Merle Haggard. The keys blend wonderfully with Ben Keith’s dobro. The enterprise achieves quiet liftoff like a man in a lawn chair being elevated by helium balloons. When the Neil’s soaring harmonica returns on the bridge, look down. You’re already 200 feet up.

What does Neil and these songs no favors, though, is the clarity achieved in the 1980s via improved sound equipment, namely studio reverb and higher-quality microphones. Seems like a silly observation, right? It’s obvious, but also trite: Wouldn’t a performer as great as Neil sound even better rendered in crystalline clarity? And the answer, of course, is no. The man had a coke booger dangling from his nose during The Last Waltz. He frequently performs in what appears to be tattered clothing. This is not a career built on perfection. What makes Neil an icon is his potency for conveying emotion.

Old Ways, to be sure, isn’t overly emotional. It dips into the saccharine, but Harvest Moon does that better. “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” is a time capsule — Neil and Willie take the pulse of Nashville as it stands and lean into the authenticity of country music. Who is singing these songs now? Their bygone reverie sounds dreamy even in 1985. The image of Neil on the album cover, alone and wandering up a shaggy dirt path dressed as a farmhand, coupled with the title makes for dangerous terrain. Is he longing for a fabled past of America that, gulp, many have used as dangerous and reactionary rhetoric for pushing harmful conservative policy? Maybe!

But Neil’s really looking out for the cowboys, man. And inspiring lots of other folks to keep folk and country music alive. When he sings about “rows and rows of houses,” I hear Jeff Tweedy doing the same a decade later. A little reverb on the drums makes them sound frigid, sure. Not quite as warm as what you’ll get in the barn — that first barn. If the idea is to amplify the message, then what harm could a little studio sheen do for said message? Imagine, if you will, “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” with the St. Anger snare sound. (Kidding.)

Or not! It could work. Who the hell knows? Even if the Neil on the cover of Old Ways doesn’t seem like he’d rock with a layer of gloss on the audio proceedings, it was 1985. He was long out of the ditch, six years removed from “Powderfinger” and another four away from “Rockin’ In The Free World.” In other words, the perfect time for a little detour back into his old ways — with a little added shine. May we all be so lucky.

“Are There Any More Real Cowboys?,” written by Neil Young, from Old Ways (1985)

Neil Young: vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
Willie Nelson: vocals, acoustic guitar
Karl Himmel: drums
Joe Osborne: bass
Hargus “Pig” Robbins: piano